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Fala leaned over her task, carefully twirling the tiny drill against the hard shell of the fiilabert nut. She blew the shavings away. Eyeballing the hole, she compared its size to the width of her sinew.

"Are you done yet?" asked Birka, bouncing on the bunk next to Fala. "I want to play."

"Almost," said Fala. She poked the stiff sinew through the hole. Then she tied a trefoil knot below and above the nut to anchor it, followed by another at the far end of the foot-long sinew. "All right, this is my third ram. The rest of these can serve as ewes." Fala scooped up a handful of loose nuts.

"I'm glad that we went out gathering nuts," said Birka. The two girls headed outside. "I like getting to keep the food rejects for games."

Author's Notes

This story came out of the February 2011 Muse Fusion. It was inspired by a prompt from Ellen Million. It can be sponsored for $7.75 (or 8 Torn World credits).

"Lookbacks" shows a popular Northern game that teaches crafting skills, good aim, and animal habits. Children who help with gathering the edible nuts have more opportunity to find the best materials for making the game pieces, which encourages diligence.